An RT-award-winning literary agent with 20 years experience in numerous genres opens up about her experience and adventures in publishing and the world beyond it.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

I am Sick

I actually started to get sick yesterday, but popped Ibuprofen after Ibuprofen hoping that the headache that would not go away was just a headache. But I woke up with it this morning, with a congested head and only half my throat sore.

I am sick because I did too much. After all the family gatherings last week, I had promised to take my retired minister mother to Atlantic City (where I mostly watch her gamble), so I was gone Monday and Tuesday (but was up at 7:00 a.m. and worked until noon on Monday and was on the blackberry the whole time there). I got back Tuesday night and stayed up until 2:00 a.m. sewing yellow question marks on a purple suit for my son's Halloween costume of infomercial pitchman Matthew Lesko (he looked fabulous), but I was already tired.

And then I worked like a tornado the next two days trying to make up for lost time, working until 7:00 on Wednesday night.

I took two naps Friday, but that didn't make a difference.

So I am holed up in bed with my computer and I will spend all day today reading in an effort to outfox this cold. I have tickets to A Bronx Tale tomorrow, and I don't want to be under the weather for that.

6 comments:

I have learned the hard way that I do not have the same physical stamina that other people have. If I try to do too much (like what you described), I get sick.

Strep throat sick.

Oh, and it is not the nasty pathogen Group A Strep that others have to worry about. Nope, it's a strain that is normally on my throat but if my defenses get run down it then becomes pathogenic. (Group F, Beta Strep in case you were wondering.)

That is what is known in medicine as "opportunistic pathogens."

Please, just listen to your body and surrender to being one with your pillow if that is what it calls out for.

I know after several harsh lessons to reschedule my day whenever my body gives me the sore throat signal. That's only the beginning of my woes if I don't heed the warning.

Aw... that sucks. Hope you get feeling better soon. One herb (yeah, I'm crazy) that I've found to help with all sicknesses is called "Ultimate Echinacea" (spelling?). Anytime I get sick I just take a dropper-full and I'm usually better quickly. Another one that helps with sniffles or just overall-bad-feeling is called VSC (no clue what it stands for).

According to doctors, the only way to catch a cold is through contact with someone who has a cold...usually hand contact. So you must have been exposed, and being run down and working too hard left you vulnerable to the infection.

The best thing to do is stay home and get better. Your body needs the rest. And, for the millions of us out here who can't afford to catch a cold, stay home and recuperate as a symbolic gesture of good will. My partner of fifteen years caught a cold on a flight to Germany this past summer, which developed into pneumonia. All from being too run down and working too hard. The pneumonia turned into ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) and he nearly died. He is now considered to have had the longest hospital stay (mostly in ICU) in Doylestown PA's Hospital history, from May 17th until August 28th (he was intubated, trached...you name it). And all this came from a simple cold.

And let me tell you, this wasn't easy on me (thank God for decent editors who were supportive and fantastic when I was a zombie!)or my family. By mid-July I knew most of the staff in ICU by name; by early August I knew how to work the settings on the ventilator. And now that's he's recuperating the biggest fear is catching a simple cold from someone else. We simply couldn't take a chance on going to a restaurant or seeing something like A Bronx Tale, for fear of being exposed to a cold or virus from someone who should have remained at home.